alanjjohnstone
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Ireland is nationalizing its healthcare system for the duration of the coronavirus crisis.
Health Minister Simon Harris says ‘there can be no room for public versus private’ healthcare during a pandemic,
The move follows a decision by Spain to do the same
While in the UK private hospitals have integrated into the NHS system
Ozy, if you look back on this thread, you will find that I was perhaps the most sceptical and cynical about the COVID-19 threat. It took comrades many posts and links to convince me otherwise. It was perhaps TWC’s two links on message #195486 that finally succeeded in convincing me that I was wrong with my analysis and emphasis.
As the blogger on SOYMB, I have made a judgement not to post messages that are apocalyptic predictions (as I have been guilty of on other threads here about climate change) but instead highlight how this pandemic is exposing the inequalities inherent within capitalist society and also to point out the cooperation and mutual aid initiatives being set up as positive signs of perhaps social changes that in future maybe stepping stones to socialism.
Even governments have now had to face for what for them must be harsh realities of the contradictions that the capitalist system has built into it. I view Gordon Brown’s admission for the need for a global government as being a positive for our view of the necessity of world socialism rather than the propaganda of the nationalist authoritarianism that is being promoted by some.
Surely, our task now is to use this health crisis to strengthen the case for socialism – that even with social distancing, and self isolation we are social animals and when push comes to shove, we will work together as citizens of the world.
Gordon Brown has urged world leaders to create a temporary form of global government to tackle the twin medical and economic crises
How will the UK pay?
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-52044374
And last week, after the announcement of the restarting of quantitative easing – the purchase from the open market of £200bn of borrowing – there was a little-spotted sentence in the official notice to markets on the purchase of gilts and corporate bonds. It said: “The MPC will keep under review the case for participating in the primary market.”
In English, this means that the Monetary Policy Committee is considering buying UK government bonds directly from the Treasury. .. for many economists this will step over a red line into what is called “monetary financing”, the modern day electronic equivalent of printing money –A guide to either the recession or the recovery
Robbo, this article makes some interesting comparisons on different rates for different nations.
“It was how the government chose to address the economic fallout of the global financial crisis – by underfunding and understaffing the NHS and social care, and by eroding the basic welfare safety net that people depend on when times are hard. As we are now discovering, these were false economies that left us less, not more, prepared for this crisis.
Similarly, if we allow Covid-19 to permanently damage our economic and social fabric, it will be our own fault, not that of the virus. This time we can, and must, do better.”While Bolsonaro denies the crisis, the drug gangs impose their own lock-downs.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/25/brazil-rio-gangs-coronavirus
COVID-19 – the class connection
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-52023147
“The social class who is ill at the moment are the upper-middle and upper classes, and that’s why we haven’t yet seen a sustained transmission rate,” says Dr Beatriz Perondi, who heads the disaster and emergency committee at São Paulo’s Hospital das Clinicas, the largest public hospital in Latin America. “Once they start spreading the virus to the middle and lower classes, that’s when we are going to have issues with quarantine. With lots of people living in the same room, that could cause huge transmission problems.”
XR distanced itself from stickers purporting to be from the campaign group which state: “Corona is the cure, humans are the disease.”
While the State repression continues for Julian Assange who had his bail application again refused
A worrying development. Some countries are stopping the export of food and beginning policies of stock-piling reserves
Vietnam halts export of rice, the country’s major hard currency earner.
Kazakhstan, one of the world’s biggest shippers of wheat flour, has suspended exports of buckwheat, wheat and rye flour, sugar, potatoes, carrots, turnips, beets, onions, cabbages, sunflower seeds and oil.
Russia has suspended exports of processed grains such as ready-to-eat buckwheat, rice or oat flakes from March 20 for 10 days,
Kyrgyzstan banned the exports of basic food products for six months. Kyrgyzstan will stop the exports of wheat and meslin, wheat flour, rice, macaroni products, vegetable oils, eggs, sugar and almost all types of feed for agricultural animals.
Ann Berg, an independent consultant and veteran agricultural trader who started her career at Louis Dreyfus Co. in 1974.
“You could see wartime rationing, price controls and domestic stockpiling,” Berg said, “it’s the least-developed countries with weak currencies that get hurt the most.”“We’re starting to see this happening already – and all we can see is that the lockdown is going to get worse,” said Tim Benton, research director in emerging risks at think tank Chatham House “If governments are not working collectively and cooperatively to ensure there is a global supply, if they’re just putting their nations first, you can end up in a situation where things get worse,” He warned that frenzied shopping coupled with protectionist policies could eventually lead to higher food prices – a cycle that could end up perpetuating itself. “If you’re panic buying on the market for next year’s harvest, then prices will go up, and as prices go up, policy makers will panic more,” .
“Given the problem that we are facing now, it’s not the moment to put these types of policies into place,” said Maximo Torero, chief economist at the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. “On the contrary, it’s the moment to cooperate and coordinate.”
“The guy is insane”
His business empire is centred on hotels and golf.
His personal wealth is particularly vulnerable to lock-downs and restrictions on travel.
As always, he is looking after Numero Uno
We were impressed by China building a hospital in two weeks.
Ineos, the chemicals company, is planning to build two hand sanitiser factories in just 10 days.
The anti-abortionists are using the Covid-19 crisis as a cover to impose a clamp down. A coalition of anti-abortion groups urge governors to ban most abortions on the grounds they were not essential.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/23/ohio-texas-abortion-us-coronavirus-outbreak
Ohio and Texas have ordered health care providers in the state to stop performing “nonessential” abortions.
“Abortion is time-sensitive, essential health care,” said Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, president of the National Abortion Federation. “Women deserve better than a craven exploitation of a health care crisis in furtherance of an anti-abortion agenda.”
